Paradise: Milly's Visit
by ImaginAries
Summary: Warning, SPOILERS! After a certain someone's death, Milly Thompson mourns and receives a visit to help lift her spirits.


**_~_****_Paradise_****_: Milly's Visit~_**

**__**

            Milly slumped over the wrinkled sheets of the bed where she had been for the last day and a half.  They had come to the City of LR exactly two days before and so much had happened it was finally taking its toll on her.  The death of a child possessed by a Gung-Ho Gun Demon named Zazi the Beast was first, and then came Mr. Vash and Mr. Wolfwood's argument, and following that…Wolfwood's death.  She didn't think she could cry anymore, she'd been crying since she heard the news of Vash finding Wolfwood inside the abandoned church, leaning against his cross-machine gun, dead.  Her eyes were red rimmed and slightly puffy from the tears, as well as from lack of sleep.  The yellow pajamas from the night before were wrinkled and damp- she hadn't bothered changing yet.  Milly was normally chipper, bright, and saw the good side of every situation, but not this time.  The room was filled with her shuddering sighs.

            A soft knock on the door preceded the creaking of it opening, yet Milly did not look up at the concerned sound of her insurance partner's voice.

            "Milly, we should really be leaving. I think Vash is going to take off again." 

            The tall brunette remained hunched over the bed and didn't budge, but her saddened tone replied. 

            "I can't, I just can't Meryl! He told me to wait here for him until he came back, and that's just what I'm going to do!"

            Meryl closed her blue eyes and thought for a moment.  It hurt her so much to see her best friend and partner like this.  Usually it was Milly trying to cheer Meryl up.  

            "He's not coming back, Milly.  Come on, you can't stay here forever…we have to follow Vash, we have a job to do still, and who knows what's going to happen if he finds Knives at the next town."

            "No!" Milly cried out, finding tears threatening once more. She forced them to stay back, "He said he would come back, and I'm not moving until he does."

            Shocked by the sudden outburst, Meryl took several steps back and crossed her arms.  She found even _she was on the verge of tears, but not from sadness but from frustration.  It seemed Milly really wouldn't move from that spot until the impossible happened, and Meryl wasn't one to say that Milly wasn't stubborn.  The girl could probably coax a mule out of being pigheaded.  _

            They had all been heartbroken to learn of Wolfwood's death.  Vash had hardly spoken- he was the one who had found his body by following the bloody footprints in the sand.  However, it was Milly who took it the hardest, and Meryl was slightly puzzled as to why.  She supposed they had formed some sort of closeness that something had happened between Nicholas D. Wolfwood and Milly the night before his death.  Something that perhaps ran deeper than the simple friendship they had portrayed. 

            Before another thought could be formed or a word spoken, a third presence entered the room.  Vash the Stampede stood tall, dressed in his trademark red buttoned trench coat, his aqua green eyes hidden behind circle framed reflector glasses.  No doubt there was pain and torment behind those lenses. 

            "Meryl…let's leave her alone for a few more minutes."

            There was a soft firmness in his voice, and grief laced his tone yet he somehow managed to hide it well enough.  Meryl turned, looking to him past her blue-black bangs and frowned. 'No', she thought, but followed him from the room and shut the door tightly, leaving Milly alone.

            Milly remained beside the bed for only a moment more before forcing herself to stand shakily on legs of jelly.  She hadn't stopped trembling since that day, but Meryl was right- she couldn't stay there forever, they still had things to take care of.  As long as Vash was around…People would keep dying, towns would still be destroyed, and it was never his fault.  She didn't know the story, but somehow Milly knew that there was much more to Vash and Wolfwood than Wolfwood had let them know about.  

            Slowly she shed the wrinkly pajamas and changed into her insurance girl uniform.  The tan trousers, white button up shirt, suspenders and striped tie felt restricting all of a sudden.  There was more comfort in those pajamas, but maybe it was because he had held her while she wore them that night.  Her shining aqua eyes turned to the table where a crust of a two day old sandwich lay, and she murmured to the air. 

            "You should really eat those sandwiches…"

            _'Will you eat them with me?' _ 

            A voice echoed in her mind as she sat down in the lone chair facing the bed and nodded with a feigned smile and overenthusiastic brightness. "Sure, alright!"

            Against the wall beside her leaned the cross-machine gun, having been carefully rewrapped in its canvas cloth and buckled together.  Vash had brought it in and Milly took it from him, assuming the responsibility of caring for Wolfwood's prized weapon. 

            She could remember the day they'd met Wolfwood after the accident on the Sand-steamer, his form slumped against the cross in the desert as they rode past in a bus.  They had picked him up and when they'd arrived to town, it took four men to lift it from cargo and toss it to him.  Wolfwood had caught it with ease. 

            _"That thing sure is heavy!"_ They shouted down to him.

            Wolfwood put on his shades and lit a cigarette and smirked, _"Of course it is; that's because it's so full of mercy."_

            "Where was the mercy for him?! Why did he have to die?!" Milly cried out as sobs racked through her body, causing her to double over with her hands covering her face. It was unnerving that tears could actually still be produced- she thought she had cried her eyes dry. 

            _'Now, now, please don't cry.'_

            A voice  spoke from behind her.  Or was it from next to her? Maybe it was in front of her.  It seemed to have come from any and all directions. 

            Milly lift her head from her hands, perplexed. "What?"  She looked around and raised an eyebrow. "There's no one there Milly, you're just being silly."

            _'You're just not looking hard enough.'_

            It spoke again, but this time it came clearly from the window beside the bed.  Her bright eyes followed the sound and she was amazed at the sight.  There he stood, leaning against the wall as casually arrogant as he ever was. 

            "Mr. Wolfwood?" She queried, clearly more bewildered now than before.

            He gave her one of his handsomely sly grins and nodded. 

            _'You know it…though you called me Nicholas a couple nights ago if I'm not mistaken, and I think after then it's safe to drop all formalities so let's stick to that, hmm?'_

            Milly nodded slowly though she had no idea how on earth he could be in the room.  He was unscathed- looking healthy, no scratches marking him, his blue and white suit unwrinkled and intact, and his eyes were sparkling. It was unbelievable. 

            "Oh, you're alright! I can't believe you're alright! I didn't even hear you come inside, Mr. Priest, um, Nicholas." She stood suddenly, completely forgetting that they had already laid him to rest.  There was no way he should be standing there at that moment.

            Wolfwood lit a cigarette and gazed at her steadily without ever bringing it to his lips. 

            _'That's because I'm not really here.  Well, I am, but not in the way you and I and the others want.  I'm just here to apologize.'_

"Oh," Milly turned her gaze to the floor for a moment then kept it on him again. "Apologize for what? You haven't done anything." She smiled brightly to him.

            Wolfwood scoffed, letting the cigarette fall, neither of them taking any notice that it evaporated into thin air before ever touching the ground.  Taking soundless steps to her, he placed his hands on her shoulders, which felt completely real.

            _'I lied to you, and to everyone else.  My entire life was led the wrong way, led down the path of destruction and death, and it wasn't until I met you three that I started to believe it could be changed.  I was stubborn to the way Vash lived his life, so blind to it, so resistant and I didn't realize it could be done after all, that no one had to die…I didn't realize it until it was too late. I'm sorry I had to leave.'_

Milly couldn't take her eyes off of him as she listened.  She was in complete awe that somehow Wolfwood came back, even if it was just for this moment.  He felt real to her; his hands were warm upon her shoulders, his face looked so alive.

            She bit her lip then shook her head defiantly. "I don't want you to go again, you can't leave! It wasn't your fault, and it isn't Mr. Vash's fault either but he's blaming himself! If you don't go everything will be alright again!"

            Warm arms surrounded her, his fingers stroked her long hair and he rested his chin atop her head. 

            _'As much as I'd like to do that, I can't.  Milly, I'm sorry, but I only came to apologize, I'm afraid I can't stay too much longer.  Besides, I told you to wait here until I came back, so I had to keep that promise of returning one last time, didn't I? I had to come back to tell you.'_

"Tell me what?" Milly sniffled, tilting her head to gaze up at him, the stubble of his chin grazing her cheek. 

            Wolfwood met her eyes and sighed with a hint of a smile.

            _'Tell you that it was ok to leave, of course.  And I wanted to say thank you.  You were always kind to me.  No matter what happened or what I did, you always found a way to make me smile, to make us all smile.'_

"Oh…you're welcome Mr. Pr-, um, Nicholas…" she replied, an underlying tone of her usual chipper attitude returning.

            He nodded and began to loosen his hold on her, stepping back toward the window. Horrified that she would never see him again, Milly grabbed his sleeve and held onto it desperately. 

            "Wait! You can't leave yet, please, I have to tell you something too before it's too late!"

            Wolfwood glanced over his shoulder at her then turned around.  His blue-grey eyes locked on her glimmering aqua ones and he could see what she was thinking.  Her lips were parted and yet did not speak what she so urgently wanted to say to him.  The emotions were clear, the unspoken words evident merely through her expression.  It was what they both had felt and what they both had been too afraid to admit. His hands found hers and held them tightly.

            _'I know…I do too.'_

            His lips brushed over her softly and Milly swiftly complied, feeling his embrace once more, and then his gravelly voice whispering into her ear. 

            _'It's alright now.  I'm fine here and we'll see each other sooner than you think.  We'll all go to a quiet place where no one is ever hurt, where no one can die, and where no one is ever sad.  We'll all be there together, happily ever after in __Eden__…in paradise.'_

            Wolfwood's voice faded but the remnants of the last few words lingered in the air.  His touch had gone but the warmth around her shoulders remained, and Milly found herself sitting in the lone chair once more, facing the empty bed.  She was all alone in the room again and yet she didn't feel so lonely. 

            Her last tears fell as she looked up and gazed out the window toward a clear blue sky and murmured with assurance of the words spoken to her.

            "Paradise…"

                                                                                                ~The End~


End file.
